US Military to Conduct 'Insurgency' War Game as Political Tensions Rise in America
In an announcement earlier this week, the Department of Justice revealed that they were in the midst of creating a new “domestic terror” task force, and the proximity of this announcement to that of President Biden’s angry January 6th speech made it very clear just who these “domestic terrorists” were.
Now, just days later, the US military’s plans for a wide-scale “insurgency” war game has many wondering if this isn’t a show of force aimed directly at the far-right end of the American political spectrum.
The U.S. Army’s annual unconventional warfare exercise Robin Sage is set to kick off across rural North and South Carolina this month, pitting Special Forces candidates against simulated guerillas fighting for the fictional nation of “Pineland.” The exercise is so realistic and spans such a large area that the U.S. Army has issued notices to local law enforcement agencies warning them not to mistake the exercise for a real insurrection, an error that has cost one soldier his life during a previous Robin Sage event.
Advertisement - story continues belowRobin Sage is conducted annually by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. This year’s Robin Sage will take place from January 22 to February 4 and will span across 25 counties in North Carolina and three counties in South Carolina. The exercise was first held in 1974 and is the culmination exercise (CULEX) — the final test in the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Qualification Course standing between candidates and their green berets. An Army release given to local outlets in NC and SC this week said that the exercise is designed to represent an “environment of political instability characterized by armed conflict, forcing Soldiers to analyze and solve problems to meet the challenges of this “real-world” training.”
So, just who will the military be preparing to squash?
The exercise is designed to simulate a special forces-led guerilla campaign against the forces of the “United Provinces of Atlantica,” a fictional island off America’s eastern seaboard. Candidates embed themselves with mock guerillas fighting on behalf of the “Republic of Pineland,” a United States ally. Members of the 1st Batallion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group have even published a 157-page fictional “history” book that provides a worldbuilding backstory for the exercise, titled Atlantica: A Concise History.
Robin Sage, like Jade Helm before it, have already begun to sprout conspiracy theories online, many of which revolve around the optics of a large military force facing off against average citizens.
